Master of Arts in Media, Art and Performance Studies
Utrecht, Netherlands
MA
DURATION
2 years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2026
TUITION FEES
EUR 20,605 / per year *
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* for Non-EU/EEA students (institutional fee) | Dutch and other EU/EEA students (statutory fee, full-time) 2025-2026: € 2.601
Key Summary
Investigating emerging media, art and performance
As a student of this programme, you will be introduced to and specialise in new research areas and methodologies, necessary for investigating emerging media, performance and contemporary art forms within today's rapidly changing culture. In relation to this you will also reflect on the role of the Humanities in both academic and public debates.
Central Concerns in the Program
Central concerns in this program are, amongst others:
- The role and meaning of (visual) media in a mediatized society, inter-and transmedial practices in theatre, dance, film, television, digital media, and visual arts
- Spectator- and users, the performative turn in contemporary arts and media
- Technology, materiality, and corporeal literacies
- Game, play, and activism
- Changing institutions, mobile and/or location-based media, urban interfaces, navigational screen-based practices
- Art and media ecologies
Research Questions
In this program, you will reflect on questions such as:
- How have media developed from the time of early cinema up to current new media art?
- How has the definition of 'live' changed alongside these mediatized cultural forms?
- How has the performative turn changed the ways we think about audiences?
- How do media technologies facilitate new methods of self-staging and social performance?
- What is the influence of media and technology on the way we curate and educate in museums and archives and other cultural institutions?
The research Master's programme prepares you for PhD studies in the Netherlands or abroad. After graduation you will also be qualified for positions in academic or research institutes or cultural organisations requiring specific academic skills in media, art and performance studies at Master's level. The programme can also be an excellent starting point for a career in cultural policy and consultancy in the media sector or art world.
Academic Careers
Alumni of the Media, Art and Performance Studies research Master’s have been successful in obtaining Ph.D. positions in various prestigious international programs at, for example, the University of Rochester, the University of Hong Kong, London School of Economics, and the University of Leeds, as well as at Maastricht University, Erasmus University Rotterdam, and Utrecht University.
Professional Careers
Graduates also find their way to other job markets. For example, an alumnus of the program now works as a researcher on issues in media history in the Dutch television industry. Another one has been recruited by the Dutch Ministry of Culture and Education and a third is a cross-media researcher at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam. Others work successfully in the domain of media consultancy.
Students that graduated from this program have soon found jobs as, for example:
- Policy advisor at the Legal and Policy Department of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU)
- European Affairs Advisor for the Italian public service broadcaster RAI
- Commissioned writer of a biography on Jan de Vaal, for the Joris Ivens Stichting
- Communications Officer at Cost Office
- Dramaturge in Dutch theatre
- IT Business Analyst bij Glencore Grain BV
- Coördinator, Circuit X, production Moving Meetings Theatre at Vti, Belgium
- Programme Researcher with Andere Tijden (NTR); image researcher with Grote Geschiedenis Quiz (NTR)
- Relations Manager
Compulsory Courses
- Humanities Today
- Research Lab Media, Art and Performance Studies
- State of the Art: Transformations in Media, Art and Performance Studies
- Body, Mind, Method: Technology, Embodiment, Perception
- Artificial Intelligence and Creativity in Global Contexts
- Play, Perform, Participate
- Between Media, Art and Performance: Multimedia, Transmedia, Intermedia
- Emerging and Transforming Cultural Institutions
- Research School I
- Research School II
- Study Abroad / Across the Border
- RMA Thesis Media, Art and Performance Studies
Electives
- Histories, Archaeologies, Archives
- Tutorial Media, Art and Performance Studies I
- Ecologies of Curation
- Street Media
- Corporeal Literacy
Internship
- Internship RMA Media, Art and Performance Studies